Land Undone
by xylomophone96
Summary: In the wake of political unrest, Kalos has descended into chaos, reverting to the Old Values of 3000 years past. Poké Ball technology is failing. People and Pokémon fight to survive in underground blood battles. Many seek to supplant the Champion's reign. Six strangers tell the story of a region on the brink of undoing. And when the land is undone, survival belongs to the best. A/U


**LAND • UNDON** **E**

 **PROLOGUE**

With a fierce roar, the Tyranitar bounded forward and sank his claws deep into the chest of the Ampharos. The Electric-type Pokémon howled in pain as she was impaled. With a whimper of defeat, the Ampharos fell to her knees in submission.

"No!" cried Lolly, grasping for her Poké Ball. "Ampharos, return!" She stifled a sob as her Pokémon partner disappeared into her Ball. "Fine," she snapped, glaring at the opposing Trainer. "You're better. You made your point."

"Hmph," replied Holloway with a smirk on his face. "Glad you came around to my point of view. Money, please," he added, his hand outstretched.

With a huff, the girl stuffed a roll of money into his hand. Without another word, she ran off, tears streaming down her bright red face.

Holloway inhaled deeply, taking in the smell of the prize money. Winning had become something of an intoxication lately. Now that the Championship was closer than ever, each win signified a greater victory than the one before.

He placed a hand on his Tyranitar. "Nice work, T, you did great," he said with a smile of encouragement. Tyranitar grunted in response, still breathing heavily from the previous battle.

Holloway's smile faded at the sight of the Ampharos' blood on Tyranitar's hands. "Boy, you really hit her hard, didn't you, T? I better make sure I never get you mad," he remarked, laughing uneasily. Despite his relentlessly vicious method of battling, it still hurt to see another Pokémon suffer at the hands of his own partner.

 _Thank you, mind_ , Holloway thought firmly to himself, pushing away the guilty thought with his usual three-word ritual. "T, return," he said calmly, releasing the tension in his muscles as he watched the seven-foot behemoth shrank into its capsule.

A light snow had begun to fall. Sparkling flecks of crystal dust tickled his cheek as they fell. The last few rays of the sun had begun to dip below the mountains surrounding the far-off Pokémon League.

 _Not so far now_ , Holloway told himself. His hand went to the case in his breast pocket, now containing his seventh Gym Badge.

The journey had not been easy. Having been raised in the notoriously competitive Snowbelle City, Ace Trainers were a dime a dozen. It took real guts and skill to break away from the pack. He owed this success to his six companions. The last fourteen months had been plagued with setbacks and defeats in the beginning. However, the instincts of both he and his Pokémon sharpened. Familiarity gave birth to strategy and the victories began to pile up more than the losses.

 _And Lolly makes ninety-six,_ he thought, smug with success. _OK, time to make tracks._

 **LAND** **• UNDONE**

Vallée Étroite Way was comparably less busy than previous Routes. Evidently, very few Trainers made it to the final hurdles of the Pokémon League challenge. Holloway noticed that the wild Pokémon here were significantly more powerful. Novice Trainers from Couriway Town must have been too weak to make their start here. As night fell, the sounds of sparring Pokémon became less frequent. Trainers could be spotted setting up camp for the night up in a tree or under cover of bushes.

Feeling particularly motivated this evening, Holloway decided to press on in the dark for a while longer. He took a quick look at the schematics of his electronic Town Map. If he kept moving at this pace, he could cross the valley bridge and make camp on the Terminus Cave side of the Route. Perhaps if he started early tomorrow, he could make it to Couriway Town by nightfall. The more distance he put behind Terminus Cave the better, he thought. Eastern Kalos was rife with rumours of suspicious goings-on deep in the abandoned coal mine. Tales were told of Pokémon gone mad while inside the cave and were sealed away for protection. The story was mostly told just to warn young children not to wander inside alone. However, Holloway knew that every story was based on truth. _Thank you, mind_. He pushed the thought aside.

Within the hour, the bridge came into sight. Holloway took great care when traversing the deep canyon. His fear of heights was exacerbated by the creak of the bridge's aging support wires. He tried chancing a quick glimpse at the river below, but in the darkness there was no end to the drop. His muscles sore with tension, Holloway began to quicken his pace, hoping that the end would come soon.

Seventy-five excruciating steps later, he breathed a sigh of relief to be standing on solid ground again. "Ugh," he grunted, grimacing at the way he had come, "never again."

Turning his back on the gaping valley, Holloway began searching for a suitable hideaway to rest. He refused to sleep in open spaces or under tree branches. His philosophy was 'if you can be attacked, avoid it.' He wasn't sure if it was because he was in a more experienced region of Kalos, but the wild

Pokémon had grown more vicious than previous encounters. The six weeks had seen Holloway attacked almost half a dozen times by Flying-type Pokémon in the night. He still bore a vicious scar on his right cheek from a wild Talonflame three nights past. Due to the recent threat of attack, he was often left to sleeping beneath thick Berry bushes that covered both his scent and his person. Unrolling his sleeping bag, Holloway began to settle in for the night. The final precaution he always took was to set up several homemade mouse traps in order to catch any wild Rattata that attempted to gnaw at his while he slept.

The last fifteen years had seen the Pokémon of Kalos grow wilder and more primitive. People and Pokémon no longer fought for success, but survival. Since the various political regions of Kalos had been supplanted by the Old Values, the Champion had neither the time nor the resources to rule an entire region effectively. Crime had begun to increase in Lumiose City. Humble hometowns like Vaniville Town fell into dilapidation. Families fell apart and Trainers like Holloway had to learn to fight for their own survival.

It was for this reason that he had come so far. He wanted to do more than just survive. He wanted to live and live like a king. He wanted to be the one to unite Kalos and rid the region of the growing parasite of chaos. All this and more was promised to the Champion of the Kalos League. There were those who said that Stray was growing out of touch with the Old Values. At 55, he was but a shadow of his former self; he was not the Champion he once was. It was time for a younger, stronger, more idealistic Champion. Holloway knew that fate had decided for him to succeed Stray. His late mother had always believed he was born for great things, for he was born on the day of Stray's Championship battle. Now, twenty-one years later, he would play the role of challenger and become the king he was born to be-

A piercing scream split the silence. Holloway was ripped out of his stupor and poked his head above the bush, searching for the source of the noise. It had to be a girl, a young woman perhaps.

She screamed again. Holloway leapt to his feet and launched forwards, keeping hidden in the shadows. As he drew closer to the noise, he could begin to make out words.

"Return! NO! What?! Why won't it work? Wait, Weaville, _no_! NO!" the girl screamed in pain. Through the trees, Holloway could make out the form of the girl and the Weaville. It was… attacking her!

He leapt into action. Bursting through the underbrush, he hurled a Smoke Ball at the Weaville. "Here!" he waved frantically at the girl. "Come with me!"

The Weaville hissed in anger as the smoke filled its vision. Slashing wildly for the girl, it caught the back of her arm, drawing blood as Holloway tugged her out of its grasp. The girl shrieked in pain once more, ending in a frightened whimper.

"Come on!" Holloway urged. "We've got to get you to a Pokémon Center!" Sensing the oncoming _whoosh_ , he ducked as the Weaville's Ice Shard smashed the trunk of a tree, inches above his head. Leading the girl by the hand, the two Trainers ran through the cover of the trees, heading back to the bridge.

"I don't understand," whimpered the girl, tears streaming. "I sent out Weaville and all of a sudden-"

"Wait a minute. That's _your_ Weaville?" Holloway interrupted. "Why is he attacking you, then?!"

"I don't know!" she cried desperately. "All of sudden, he just s-started slashing at me! He-he got my arm a-and my leg," she added, clutching at the blood oozing from her right arm.

"We'll look at that in a minute, OK?" Holloway assured her. "Just keep pressure on it until we're

safe- oh, shit, _duck_!"

He held her head down as another Ice Shard went soaring over their heads, narrowly missing them. The Weaville was gaining ground.

"The bridge!" shrieked the girl, pointing ahead.

Holloway shook his head. "We can't cross it. That thing will just slash the supports to bits and we'll be done for." He reached for his belt and tossed a Poké Ball. "We'll have to stand and fight. T, give me a hand! Use Rock Slide!"

"No! Don't!" the girl cried, but it was too late. Tyranitar burst out with a furious roar, standing his ground.

The Weaville stopped in his tracks, frozen in fear.

"Go!" Holloway urged the girl. "Get across the bridge!"

But she refused. "We have to go _now_!" she insisted. "Your Tyranitar will-"

The Poké Ball in Holloway's hand began humming violently. _What's happening?!_ he thought. This had never happened before.

With a loud _SNAP!_ , the Ball split in two.

The girl pointed wildly. "That's what happened to mine!" she cried.

But Holloway wasn't listening. He gazed up at Tyranitar in fear. What happened to your Pokémon when its Poké Ball broke?

The Tyranitar turned away from the Weaville and snarled viciously at Holloway.

"Oh, shit," he breathed. Without another word, he hurtled across the bridge, leading the girl by the hand as he ran. Adrenaline was now coursing through his veins. Fight or flight. He had just done both. Why did his Poké Ball break? And why did his partner suddenly turn on him like that?

A razor sharp claw dug into his chest. Holloway bellowed in pain as Tyranitar's Shadow Claw struck. He could feel the warm blood spreading across his chest far too quickly. _Must keep running_.

 _Forget it_ , taunted the other voice in his head. _You're done. This is where you die-_

 _Thank you, mind!_ he roared internally. Shutting out his thoughts, Holloway put all of his energy into making the next step.

The two Pokémon attacked once more. With a final roar, the gargantuan Tyranitar crushed one of the support wires like it was a matchstick. Weaville began hacking the other wire to ribbons with his claws.

"Faster," Holloway gasped, a stitch forming in his blood-soaked chest. " _Faster!_ "

The two Trainers ran for their lives, throwing one foot in front of the other. But the bridge was falling. The wooden planks were disappearing behind them. The end was so close now. It was nearly there-

The bridge gave out beneath him and Holloway lost his footing. As he fell backwards, he snatched at the air to hold on to, anything. His hand found something. A support?

Horrified, he looked up at what he had really latched on to: the young woman's leg. She gasped in surprise as she fell backwards; back on to the bridge she had just stepped off.

All he could think was, _I'm sorry. I'm so sorry_.

The ground disappeared beneath them and the two Trainers fell down, down the endless canyon into the ferocious rapids below, a final scream of terror from their lips.

 **LAND • UNDONE**

* * *

 **A/N:** Welcome to my new fanfic. Expect the unexpected. Rated T, but could potentially be bumped up to M in the future.

New chapter will be posted up within the week. Make sure to R&R, I can take it.

Thanks for reading!


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